Title: After the Rescue

Part: NEW 34/73

Author: Karmen Ghia, karmen_ghia@yahoo.com

Series: TOS

Romance Code: S/Mc and then some.

Rating: NC-17

Appendices: http://members.tripod.com/karmen_ghia/atrappendices.html

Legend: * * * separates events in time; ~ separates events that are more or less simultaneous.

See part one for disclaimers, etc.

/I'm coming/

'I hope so,' thought Sarek as he and the gang were herded into an office at gunpoint.

~

Maja was in awe and beginning to fear Yrit and Gvo as he watched them move through the building following Sarek's trail. What astonished the MageCheq was how they simply drained the energy from everyone in their path. It was a rougher version of what had happened to him. Whereas he was merely incapacitated, these later victims were dead.

'What have you sent after me, brothers?' Maja wondered.

/sssshh.... we cannot hear Ssssarek over your noissssse.../

Maja shifted his vision down to emanations to quiet his mind and follow Sarek's trail in his own way. He watched with some unease as being after being ceased to emanate as they passed by. He further noticed that the bounty hunters' emanation field flared briefly and then faded with each death.

They came to the office where Sarek and company were being held.

Maja reached for the door but Yrit waved him away.

'There are four of them.'

/... we know .../

/...wait...wait.../

Maja stepped aside and thought he could hear bodies slumping to the floor.

'Why not do that with us in the first place,' he thought before he could stop himself.

/....your ssssshields ... too sssstrong..../

Gvo pushed the door open and they moved inside. Everyone in the office except the well shielded Sarek was asleep and he was trying to wake Obsta.

Maja flung himself into Sarek's arms.

"Hurry, Sait, we go."

"We cannot leave Obsta, Taig and Mogra. They have helped us."

One look told Maja that Sarek would put up a helluva fight about it. He leaned down and melded with Obsta who suddenly snapped awake from the life force Maja pumped into him.

"What the hell..." was all he got out before his eyes lit on the bounty hunter ghouls.

"New friends for you, MajaYaja?" Taig asked rising from under Maja's fingers.

"Can we go now?" Mogra asked as Maja helped him up, looking around at the field of corpses they stood in.

/....go..../

They stepped back.

"C'mon, let's go," Obsta took Sarek and Maja by an elbow each.

/...you go..../

"Not without them," Taig said dangerously.

Maja swung round to face Obsta.

"Go," he hissed, "go, take Sait and go. Go!"

/....ssssssait comessss with ussss.../

Everybody looked at Maja.

"Maja, what is this?" Sarek asked quietly.

"My brothers sent them to 'rescue' us," Maja said sadly.

"I see." He turned to the bounty hunters. "We choose not to go with you at this time," Sarek informed them.

Mr. Yrit gave Sarek a long blank look. "Let'sssss dissssscusssss thisssss outssssside...." he said reasonably and moved to the door.

"That's actually not a bad idea," Obsta opined and all followed him following Yrit out of the charnel house.

"What gives, Maja?" Obsta hissed as they left the building.

"What I said, my brothers sent them to rescue us and that's what they're doing." Maja informed him.

"What a bad idea," Obsta murmured as they made their way through the bustling evening streets. No one in the vicinity seemed even remotely aware that all the occupants of a nearby warehouse had mysteriously died in their sleep. The next day's newspaper would attribute the massacre to a rival gang and poison gas.

Yrit and Gvo led them out of the port warehouse complex and to the dry dock where their ship waited patiently for them.

/...your promisssse, MageCheq..../

"Sait," Maja looked into Sarek's face. "I promised that I would go with them if they helped me rescue you. I..."

He was interrupted by Taig and Mogra jumping the hunters. Obsta grabbed Maja and Sarek as if to run for it but was brought to his knees by a tap on the shoulder from Gvo. Yrit stood over the unconscious Taig and Mogra, waiting.

"Please. Please, don't kill them, please," Maja begged, surprising even himself. "They're .... they're friends."

Gvo and Yrit stepped away from Obsta and his gang, now fast asleep but very much alive, knowing the situation was under control. As the most honorable of the Talljets, Maja would be honorable in this and Sarek would follow his lover. They waited; they were patient creatures.

"I swore, Sarek," Maja whispered, turning back to him. "On my brother's lives that I would go peacefully with them if they saved you." He looked up at his lover. "I must." He stepped back from the Vulcan.

"We are ssssent for you, too, Vulcan," Gvo hissed at him. "But thisss one alone will do," he inclined his ghostly head toward Maja.

Sarek knew he couldn't fight these creatures and that Maja would not. He looked down at Obsta, Taig and Mogra sleeping peacefully. The decision was not hard to make.

"Then let us go."

* * *

'What are these things?' Maja thought. He sat next to Sarek, both of them watching Yrit and Gvo piloting their ship away from Gyvrre.

/...you do not know....?/

Maja shook his head more to rid himself of their intrusive energy than in negation.

/...not know...MageCheq...?/

"NO, I DO NOT KNOW," Maja shouted at them, causing them, including Sarek, to jump. "If I knew I wouldn't wonder, would I?"

"Like your brothers, you make good ussse of your fancy Vulcan education, Maja," Yrit said softly.

"Yesss, logical, logical," Gvo murmured dully.

Maja stared at him and moved more protectively in front of Sarek.

"Are you all right, Maja?" Sarek murmured.

Maja nodded.

"Don't know what we are, eh?" Yrit continued in a whisper. "Never look in the mirror, MageCheq?"

They let their eyes rest gently on him, let their MageCheq energy resonate with his and signal to his soulmind.

Horrified, Maja slammed his shields up higher and everybody jumped again.

"I am not like you," Maja said firmly, refusing to look at them, leaning back against Sarek.

"No?," Gvo asked softly, "can't track by a being'sss ssshadow? Can't read imagessss out of a being'sss thought field? Can't sssee enough into the future to sssscare yourssssself?"

"We're MageCheq'ssss, too," Yrit breathed. "We did not have a Vulcan education to beat the sssseer and the hunter out of ussss."

"They did not...beat me," Maja protested and looked at Sarek, who remained silent.

"Perhapsss," Yrit said. "But you do not know how sssstrong you are. You feed on the energy of othersss but only the tearssss."

"You only eat the fearssss and ssssaddnesss," Gvo told him. "You filter them for the nourisssshing ressssonancessss and casssst asssside the resssst."

"Thosssse old priessstssss taught you to be gentle," Yrit said. "To protect thossss weaker than you, to heal the ssssick," he whisked a tear off Maja's cheek and smoothed it over Gvo's lips. "Heal them, not finisssh them off."

"Your compasssssion is your weaknessssss and sssstrength," Gvo said, reading the future in the fabric of the present. "It will put you in danger again. You mussst learn to weigh your love againssst your power." He turned away and looked at the stars.

"Fundamentally you are like ussss: ssstrong, wisssse, sssswift," Yrit reached over to gently close Gvo's empty trance eyes. "Prey and predator breathe the same atmossssphere." He looked at Maja. "You are domesssticated. You guard the flock, not eat it." He turned to look at the stars as well. "We eat it."

Maja was silent, taking this in. Long ago he'd seen the path diverge before him. In one direction he stayed among the beings he loved in the places he called home. In the other, well, it was as if all the mystery of the universe would flow through him and he would cease to be recognizable to even himself. Not this life, he had decided, not this life. He loved; it was a pathetic kind of love compared to what he'd decided to reject, but it was more real to him than the other and his life was full of beings who loved him back. And that was enough for this life.

Hobie and Jir told him they'd made the same decision a little earlier for the same reasons. No one asked Ling and he did not tell them. Ling's path had diverged long ago, on Magidrian.

'They're right, these ghouls,' Maja thought. 'The good monks did teach us to be gentle and protect the weak.'

"Why do you eat them..." Maja wondered what to call the ghoul and settled on, "stranger."

"Exisssstance in a body issss a horror and releasssse to a higher plane is dessssired by all beingssss," Yrit answered slowly, he was fatigued by talking.

'But isn't such destruction for the mind of god to act upon?' Maja wondered.

/There is only creation in the mind of god, MageCheq. Destruction is a concept manufactured by beings unable to see the divine transmogrification all around them. Your idea of death and destruction does not touch the eternal spark in all creation, the corporeal or unseen realms. The mind of god encompasses and animates these bags of blood, bone and shit we drag about in this plane but is not it or of it./

/All physical beings live on the edge of the infinite mind of god's mind of god's mind of god. It is either an abyss or a heaven to them but the most important knowing is that they are of it and not it of them. Everything in these interconnected realms is god and the highest course is to know that and surrender./

/Like all of our kind, MageCheq, you know this but you do not surrender. You are not fully aligned with the energy of the universe. It frightens you because you did not mature in the rarefied energy fields that are Magidrian. We did. We know this and in our surrender we hunt and how we hunt, the result of our action, turns the wheel and we are that much closer to union with the mind of god. Those we eat have returned to union with the mind of god. We ourselves will return to the mind of god when that is what is in the mind of god./

/All courses are decided. There is no either/or, this or that in the infinite paths before you. How ever it does, your soulmind must choose the path it will take. And then accept the consequences. All the consequences./

Maja woke with a start and looked up at Sarek, sleeping, on whose shoulder he lay. He looked up front at Yrit and Gvo. They were unmoving in their seats - sphinxes or as if dead. He laid back down on Sarek and thought about his strange dream. He wondered if it was a dream. And then he fell asleep again; it had been a long day.

* * *

"Well, that's a lot but I don't think I could have cut a better deal," Jir was lashing his tail as he paced the mezzanine in Hobie's workshop on Povarb. He was not happy about the price Mr. Death and Mr. Suffering had put on Maja and Sarek but, oh well, if it got them home, or even just Maja home, it was worth it. He was not happy in general. Losing Rovirin and being chased off with his tail between his legs still stung. He was relieved he could still lash it at all.

"Better days, Nolis," (little brothers) Hobie poured them a little more of the good Rovirin wine Jir had brought along. He looked wistfully at Maja's drawing on the label and wondered when he would see him again.

They all looked at the drawing of the cathedral facade and thought about Maja.

"Madness," Ling said quietly, "pure madness to walk into that prison for Sarek the Vulcan."

"Must have seemed like a good idea at the time, Ling," Jir said gently. "Or he would not have done it."

Hobie doubted that he himself would have lifted a finger to help Sarek and wondered at self-absorbed little Maja doing so.

"Does he still love Spock so much?" Hobie asked.

"I don't know, Nolo," Jir answered. "It seems like he's shut away that part of his life but maybe he hasn't. Or maybe he just couldn't bear to see Sarek mistreated. You know, he always liked Sarek in his quiet little way."

"Because of Spock," Hobie persisted.

"Perhaps," Jir conceded. "But perhaps he understood Sarek's frustration with Spock from the other side."

"What do you mean, Noli?"

"Sarek was frustrated with Spock for not being Vulcan enough in the same way Maja was frustrated with him for being too Vulcan. And they both lost him for the same reason. He couldn't live in their crossfire, not to mention Lady Amanda's demands on his psyche, so he choose the path of sideways resistance: marry 'the thing' but never live on Vulcan. Sarek gets heirs and Spock gets Star Fleet and everybody is logical..."

"And poor Maja gets fucked over," Hobie said coldly.

"And as you know," Jir said levelly. "Maja would rather have Spock happy even if it means Spock being happy without him.

"Now how Sarek fits into that is interesting. Spock loves his father even though he doesn't realize it. Maja might have felt that and this is yet another effort to spare the VulCheq some pain. Not to mention Lady Amanda..."

"That Terran bitch can rot in hell," Hobie snarled.

Jir ignored this as usual. "Well, whatever, Hobie, whatever. But you must know that if Sarek dies before her, she'll drown Spock in grief and Maja knows what that will do to the VulCheq."

"Why is Spock so loved?" Hobie asked bitterly. "What has he ever done to deserve it?"

"I've no idea except that he did love Maja," Jir said gently. "He loved him but he didn't know what it was, it frightened him, and he ran away. It frightened both of them in different ways."

"Well, I was terrified, too," Hobie scowled. "SpockDeVulCheq in love." He shivered. "Yikes."

Jir smiled. "Oh, yes, truly terrifying. Amazing we aren't all completely unhinged, eh, Ling?" He pulled him under his arm and kissed his forehead.

Dolo-fra looked up from the workshop floor with his hands on his hips.

"If you drunken MageCheq sluts can spare him," Dolo called pleasantly, "I could use the Hobie down here to FUCKING HELP ME PUT THESE ENGINES HE DESTROYED BACK TOGETHER."

Hobie had to forcibly restrain Jir from throwing the bottle of wine at Dolo-fra's head. Much as he loved Jir, there was a wickedly wonderful mechanical mind in that head and it still had lots of tread on it.

* * *

Thomas Albany was deeply impressed with Hobie's base on Povarb. The Commander had seen a lot of things in his career but seldom had he seen such a magnificent shipbuilding operation as he had here. Everything was state of the art and some of it was beyond what he knew of in Star Fleet.

Albany and his crew were given free rein to explore as much as they liked. The Shilo's technicians even helped Dolo-fra and his crew repair the Tien, Maja and Yaja, as well as work on the unfinished ships in the shipyard. He wondered at Hobie's lack of concern that his crew would take the pirate's technical secrets back to Star Fleet.

"Nah, go ahead. So StaFlet will have it two weeks before they'd discover it themselves." Hobie said one night in bed. "Me, I don't care. The person who will care is the Fleet designer who was just a millimeter from the innovation him- or herself."

It had never occurred to Albany that they would not return to the Federation. He did not know why but he trusted Hobie with his whole heart and mind, and lately, body.

As a general rule, Hobie disliked making love to weaker species because he had to hold back a little more than he liked. He had, however, become quite fond of Thomas Albany. There was a core of selfless integrity in the man that was very attractive to Hobie. Albany's grief over Maria Norris' death was genuine and Hobie had not eased it because he shared it himself. They had grown close in their admiration for that fine lady and they had come to love the admirable qualities in each other.

It occurred to Albany that he should be trying to arrest Hobie Talljet as an enemy of the Federation. However, he concluded that would be uncouth since he and his crew were, more or less, Hobie's guests. They were well treated and the only desire that was not fulfilled was that they head for home in some ship or other.

"I'll send you along in that big solar catamaran over there as soon as it's done up for deep space." Hobie told Albany when he asked about this.

'And when Sarek arrives you can take him with you,' Hobie thought to himself.

The Talljets had heard from Messrs. Yrit and Gvo, that they would be arriving with both 'goals accomplished' in 12 hours. This was very good news, the Talljets agreed happily.

* * *

"And when we arrive, Maja, what then?" Sarek asked a few hours later.

"Then we borrow some money from the lads and hit the road again," Maja said calmly. 'I hope it will be that simple,' he thought and turned to find Gvo's empty sad eyes on him. He turned away; if these 'persons' knew something unpleasant about his future, he was not interested.

* * *

Hobie suddenly decided that he didn't want Yrit and Gvo on Povarb and set off in the Dancer with Jir, Albany, the Shilo crew and the catamaran in tow. They would meet the bounty hunters six hours in advance and well away from the planet.

Ling would make the financial arrangements when he got the high sign from Hobie and Jir. He would have to hock a few things and dig deep down but Maja was worth it. Ling fully expected to be reimbursed by the House of Surak and had sent a note to that effect to T'Pau. He had not yet received a reply from the old woman.

Hobie, Jir, Oza-Tol and Neria-Tza stood waiting on the repressurized landing bay for the small ships doors to open. Yrit exited first, then Gvo and then Maja and Sarek.

The brothers noted that Maja and Sarek were extremely well shielded but attributed it to fending off the bounty hunters' energy.

"Any problems, Mr. Yrit?" Hobie asked quietly in Patois.

"No, none," Yrit informed him in the same.

"Your payment is being arranged in the usual manner. Thank you," Hobie turned away from them. "If you need fuel or supplies, please make arrangements with Oza-Tol or Neria-Tza.

"We have no needssss you can ssssatisssssfy," Gvo said with infuriating slowness.

"Good bye, then," Hobie turned away walked away from them.

The telepaths saw the hunters get in their ship before they, too, left the bay. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief when Mr. Yrit and Mr. Gvo's little ship disappeared from the scanners.

All except Sarek dropped their shields with a sigh of relief.

Jir pulled Maja into his arms. "Welcome home, Noli," he whispered in Patois. Feeling Maja stiffen in his arms, he stepped back to look at his younger brother.

Sensing something 'new' in Sarek and Maja, Hobie switched his vision from color and form to energy field and took a good look at them. He further switched down to emanations, found it less interesting, and switched back to energy field. He lowered his eyes and felt around at the bond between his younger brother and Sarek. He was not amused to find it. He raised his hand into a Vulcan salute.

"Live long and prosper, Sarek of Vulcan," Hobie snarled in Vulcan.

"Peace and long life, Hobie Talljet," Sarek answered mildly in Patois.

A shocked silence settled over the group except for Maja - he thought it was a splendid riposte to Hobie's snarl.

"I suppose you're tired, let's go find you a place to freshen up, shall we?" Jir said quietly to Maja and Sarek in Patois. He stared Hobie down and led them to the turbolift.

"Yes, an excellent idea," Hobie growled, still in Vulcan.

Maja knew that tone, it was bad news, and drew closer to Jir while maneuvering himself and his Nolo between Sarek and the eldest Talljet.

* * *

"It's a great honor to meet you, Ambassador Sarek," Albany said, a while later. "We should be en route to the Federation in a few hours."

"I do not wish to return to the Federation," Sarek told him quietly.

* * *

Maja had been called away by Jir and Hobie to discuss the future.

The elder Talljets had listened politely to Maja's story of bonding to Sarek in the healing, falling in love on Imk, becoming lovers, fleeing to Gyvrre, and wanting to stay together in nonaligned space.

"It's wonderful," Hobie said flatly. "I'm so happy for you. You and Sarek of Vulcan. Of course neither of you has any importance in your old spheres. You won't be missed at all by the Klingons and Federation diplomacy can get along just fine without Sarek..."

"Hobie," Jir broke in, "please, this is serious."

"Oh, Jir, I am as serious as a heart attack." Hobie turned back to Maja. "Do you know what's been happening since you walked into that prison on Rovirin?"

Maja shook his head and looked at Jir, who lowered his eyes.

"We lost Rovirin to Star Fleet," Hobie continued, deadly calm. "We lost it in the worst way possible. Commodore Yakolev grabbed the planet and dared the Federation Council not to vote it as a protectorate after the fact, which those whores very obligingly did. My old admirer Sdiz was with him."

Maja looked up into Hobie's classical vulcanoid features. In their youth on Vulcan, when Hobie had rejected Sdiz's advances, that Vulcan had tried, almost successfully, to buy him from the cash strapped Sas. It had not been a pretty experience and there is an unconfirmed rumor that Sarek himself had intervened in some way on Hobie's behalf. Much speculation persists that this was the reason for Maja and Hobie's hasty departure from Vulcan a year or so later. Sdiz had then turned his unwelcome attentions to Jir and was rebuffed there as well for Jir's lover, Stonet. Sdiz must have been somewhat gratified to learn that Stonet later renounced Jir to pursue the life of Kolinahr in Gol.

"Since Sarek's illness that ruthless bastard, Sdiz, has become 'the' Vulcan Ambassador, very powerful and very chummy with Yakolev, whom you don't know, also a ruthless bastard.

"They started with Bharselis, then Olteiyva, then Mvisivgra, and now they have Rovirin. They are carving their own Zone along the outer edge of Klingon, Romulan, and Autonomous Zone space."

The strategist in Maja asserted itself. "Why? It's indefensible, Star Fleet will need thousands of warships to hold it."

"Only if they're opposed, Maj," Hobie said. "Kzijiet and Kroldt simply stepped aside when Yakolev 'nationalized' Rovirin."

Hobie looked into Maja's shocked face and paused to let that sink in.

"Because you were not there to point out to them their sacred duty to protect the rights and property of the most Holy Imperial Klingon Church," Hobie said very slowly and sat back. "Or us," he added sadly.

Maja closed his eyes to focus his energy and sort through these facts. He looked at Jir, who nodded 'yes, all true, alas.'

"Haven't I done enough for you?" Maja lashed at Hobie.

"What?" Hobie was truly taken aback by this.

"Haven't I done enough? I've lived with Klingons, I roamed the galaxy, I built cities with the Commune, I've fucked as many useful beings as I could find and all of it so we Talljets can have a peaceful place to live. When is it enough, Hobie? Now? How about now? I just want to live in peace with the man I love. I can still love, Hobie, I thought I couldn't love like that anymore but I can and I want to, forever. That's all I want."

"Maja..." Jir began uncertainly after a pause.

"It's not just me, Maja," Hobie broke in. "There are other people affected. Your children, my children, Jir's children, Maja the Rom (MajaKhat), Kalzat, Neria-Tza, Mizat, Qwuushi, ..."

"Can't they get along without me and Sarek?" Maja asked desperately.

"They depend on us Talljets and the communities we provide," Hobie said gently. "The needs of the many, Maja," he added, sensing victory at hand.

Maja buried his head in this hands: there are just some parts of a Vulcan education one never overcomes. But in that moment, feeling his love for Sarek making him strong, he pulled himself together and looked Hobie Talljet right in the eye:

"Fuck the many."

* * *

end of part 34

This story also lives at http://members.tripod.com/karmen_ghia/

Appendices: http://members.tripod.com/karmen_ghia/atrappendices.html